Rossi: It was my mistake

Editor

Alexander Rossi has held up his hand after a rather embarrassing start to his career as a F1 racer ended with his Manor in the barriers.

The American, who has been drafted in at Manor for five of this year's final seven races, made his debut at the Marina Bay Circuit on Friday evening.

And while many of his rivals ran it close to the barriers at the street circuit, Rossi ran right into them.

The 23-year-old hit the Armco at Turn 18, causing significant damage to the right side of his MR-03.

Sharing his thoughts, he conceded: "The first hour and 15 minutes was fine and then I braked a bit too late at Turn 18.

"It was my mistake."

Prior to that, Rossi had shown solid pace.

Although he was 20th on the timesheets, he was only 0.015s behind team-mate Will Stevens.

He added: "I felt quite comfortable in the car from the beginning and my pace was more or less okay so we'll just improve on that into tomorrow."